November 14, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - Three environmental groups sued
the Bush administration in federal court in San Francisco today
for allegedly failing to complete a congressionally required report
on global warming.

The lawsuit says a law passed by Congress in 1990, the Global
Change Research Act, requires the government to issue a national
assessment every four years on the impact of global warming on
the U.S. environment, economy, human health and human safety.

The last assessment was issued in 2000 and another report was
due in November 2004, the lawsuit says.

Danielle Fugere, a spokeswoman for Friends of the Earth, said,
"Unfortunately, the Bush administration has not complied
with the law, nor has it been truthful with the American people
or the world about the science of global warming."

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Friends of the Earth, the Center
for Biological Diversity and Greenpeace.

The defendants are three executive agencies: the U.S. Climate
Change Science Program, the U.S. Office of Science and Technology
and the Federal Coordinating Council on Science, Engineering and
Technology.

The lawsuit, which was assigned to U.S. District Judge Saundra
Armstrong of Oakland, seeks a court order requiring the agencies
to complete the assessment.

The lawsuit alleges, "Global warming is one of the most
serious threats facing humanity today."

It maintains the four-year assessment is needed to enable federal
agencies and branches of government to be fully informed in developing
policies and actions on global warming.

Kent Laborde, a spokesman for the U.S. Climate Change Science
Program, said the agency could not comment specifically on a pending
lawsuit.

But Laborde said, "We are advancing the body of scientific
information on global climate change and the program is producing
decision support material for the use of policy makers."